I Believe: 'A movement is building'

Feb. 26, 2012

Written by

Abigail Rose Borah

A U.N. police officer, left, escorts American protester Abigail Borah, right, after she disrupted U.S. lead negotiator Todd Stern's speech during the climate conference in Durban, South Africa, Thursday, Dec. 8, 2011. The conference is focusing on efforts to move toward a future agreement to legally bind all nations to emissions targets, including China and the United States. The two-week climate conference is in the final push before Friday's scheduled closing. (AP Photo/Schalk van Zuydam)

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“I am speaking on behalf of the United States of America because my negotiators cannot. The obstructionist Congress has shackled justice and delayed ambition for far too long. I am scared for my future. We need an urgent path to a fair, ambitious, and legally binding climate treaty. You must take responsibility to act now, or you will threaten the lives of youth and the world’s most vulnerable. You must set aside partisan politics and let science dictate decisions. You must pledge ambitious targets to lower emissions, not expectations. 2020 is too late to wait.”

With these words, scrawled on a piece of notebook paper trembling between my fingers, I stood up from the back of the room and interrupted Todd Stern, the U.S. negotiator at the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change.

As I spoke, the moderator rebuked, “No one is listening to you.”

In many ways, that was the point.

For two weeks, no one had listened to scientific experts, to vulnerable communities, to young people begging world leaders to protect our future. For two weeks, I watched and waited as my country failed to take necessary leadership to combat climate change. Constrained by partisan politics, an obstructionist Congress and fossil-fuel interests, the United States continues to perpetuate international gridlock at the climate negotiations.

As climate policy forms at the pace of tectonic shifts, a movement is building. Outside the U.N. plenary halls, outside the chambers of Congress, young people from across the world are coloring outside the lines of what is deemed politically feasible. We are daring to envision a better future, rejecting the sentiment that “there’s nothing we can do, so we shouldn’t try at all.”

Young people came to Durban, South Africa, wanting to influence decision-making. We want not only to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions but also to empower frontline communities and re-power our countries toward a just and sustainable future. We want to work with government, business and civil-society leaders to usher in an era of innovation, to promote clean, renewable energy, and to create a green-jobs economy.

Throughout the climate negotiations, I had been silenced by the fear that my voice did not matter. I had been silenced by the fear that I had researched policy, drafted legislation, raised money and traveled across the world only to be told to watch and wait. I had done all this only to be told that the world was not ready for social justice, economic recovery and carbon-emissions reductions.

If not scientists, vulnerable communities and their constituents, who are our politicians listening to?

Behind closed doors in Washington, money talks.

Quiet and hidden, Big Oil, Gas and Coal are buying political power in exchange for spare change compared with their profits. In the past two years, the fossil fuel industry has shelled out $347 million on congressional lobbyists and campaign contributions. Not only is the fossil-fuel industry allowed to pollute millions of tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, they are rewarded for it. In the past two years, they have received $20 billion in subsidies.

These massive fossil-fuel subsidies come out of taxpayer pockets and go right back into Dirty Oil, Gas and Coal’s hands. America is fueling corporate greed, corrupt political influence and environmental degradation at the expense of our own interests.

A majority of Americans oppose subsidies on fossil fuels and nuclear energy. More than three in four Americans wants government to invest in domestic wind, solar and energy-efficiency technology. Politicians are not listening.

Money talks — but we can speak louder.

When I stood up at the United Nations, I knew I had nothing to lose by defending my future, and everything to lose by watching and waiting in silence. When I stood up, it was not simply an act of disillusionment or rage. Indeed, I am scared to inherit an unprecedented environmental crisis, rising national debt and divisive partisan politics, and I am frustrated by the lack of urgency and action to address these issues head-on. But I refused to be paralyzed.

I am of a generation of inundated inboxes, flooded with 24/7 updates and bleak news feeds. We constantly are processing hurricanes, tsunamis, oil spills, deforestation, civil war, famine. But the stakes of inaction are too high.

I have so much hope we can create a better future that I am willing to sacrifice to get there. We cannot relegate hope and change to our politicians. We need to defend a democracy that is of, for and by the people — not corporations. We need to defend the rights of young and future generations to a safe and habitable planet, not the rights of corporations to profit and pollution.

Buying power in Washington costs money — but speaking with our voices and our votes is free. We need to hold our representatives accountable to actually represent us. If politicians do not put the safety of their citizens ahead of fossil-fuel interests, it is our responsibility to hold them accountable. For if we stand as passive witnesses to injustice, we are as culpable as the leaders we criticize.

I’m learning that even without a microphone, my voice can be heard. Even without a degree, without a seat in Congress, there is power in standing up for what we believe.

I am asking politicians to have the courage to stand up and speak out for a just and sustainable future. I am asking you to join the growing number of people committed to a democratic vision in which representatives are held accountable to the interests of the people. We can light a fire under politicians and corporations. Together, we can ignite real change.

Abigail Borah is 21-year-old junior studying conservation biology at Middlebury College. She is a leader in grassroots environmental campaigns and the international youth climate movement. Abigail is a SustainUS youth delegate to the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change and the U.N. Conference on Sustainable Development. Abigail co-founded Race to Replace Vermont Yankee, a statewide grassroots campaign to empower youth voters to replace Vermont’s aging nuclear plant with a clean energy portfolio. Contact Abigail Borah at aborah@middlebury.edu and on Twitter at www.twitter.com/abigailborah.